Double barrel robot shooter for a pin game

ABSTRACT

A double barrel robot shooter for a pin game in which the shooter has two downwardly inclined tubular marble guides placed at one end of a runway and the knock-over pins are arranged on a target area positioned at the other end of the runway. The shooter may be swung about a vertical axis so as to direct the pair of marbles toward the desired pins in an endeavor to knock them over. The target area of the runway is enclosed on three sides by a guard to prevent the marbles from running off from the runway. The guard has angled portions constituting surfaces against which &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;bank shots&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; may be made with the marbles. The shooter may be moved laterally in either direction from its central position into a new shooting position.

Livick [4 Feb. 19, 1974 DOUBLE BARREL ROBOT SHOOTER FOR A PIN GAME [76] Inventor: Lester R. Livick, 15106 Beatty St.,

San Leandro, Calif. 94579 [22] Filed: Mar. 15, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 341,690

Primary Examiner-Anton O. Oechsle Attorney, Agent, or Firm-William R. Piper [5 7] ABSTRACT A double barrel robot shooter for a pin game in which the shooter has two downwardly inclined tubular marble guides placed at one end of a runway and the knock-over pins are arranged on a target area positioned at the other end of the runway. The shooter may be swung about a vertical axis so as to direct the pair of marbles toward the desired pins in an endeavor to knock them over. The target area of the runway is enclosed on three sides by a guard to prevent the marbles from running off from the runway. The guard has angled portions constituting surfaces against which bank shots may be 'made with the marbles. The Y shooter may be moved laterally in either direction from its central position into a new shooting position.

2 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEI] FEB] 9 I974 SHEET 1 OF 2 GAME BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention Marble shooters for pin games usually make use of spring-actuated plungers for propelling the marbles over the playing surface. In my present invention I make use of a shooter that has a pair of downwardly inclined barrels which have their lower ends positioned adjacent to the upper surface of the runway so that the marbles will contact the playing surface as soon as they roll free from the barrels. The shooter can be swung about a vertical axis and it has a novel sighting apparatus that permitsthe player to aim at the desired pins at the opposite end of the runway that he desires to hit with the pair of marbles.

2. Description of the Prior Art I The patent to Frederick O. Wickersham, No. 2,490,288, issued Dec. 6, 1949, is for a projector for bowling balls in which a ball chute is positioned at one end of a runway and spots are placed on the runway at the opposite end on which the bowling pins are placed. The ball chute is downwardly inclined and guides the bowling ball onto the runway. The ball chute may be swung about a verticalaxis so as to direct the ball in a desired direction.

My invention differs from the patent in that a double barrelled shooter is used that has a pair of downwardly inclined tubular guides for shooting two marbles at the same time toward the pins. Also the guard that en closes three sides of the target area has portions which are angularly inclined and against which the marbles may be directed for banking the'marbles off from the guard portions and against the pins for knocking them over.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of my invention is to provide a double barrel robot'shooter for a pin game that makes use of gravity for propelling a pair of marbles down two downwardly inclined tubes' and along the runway toward a plurality of pins set up at predetermined positions on a target area disposed at the opposite end of the runway. The shooter may be swung about a vertical axis and it has a novel sighting apparatus that permits the player to aim the shooter at the pins he desires to hit. A guard encloses three sides of the target area and the two side guards each have two portions that extend at an angle to each other for the purpose of permitting the player to bank his shots off the angled guard portion when making a more difficult shot.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of the game parts, FIG. 2 is a side elevation of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged top plan view of the double barrel shooter.

board and associate FIG. 4 is a side elevation of FIG. 3, parts being shown trough and is used for swinging the shooter about its vertical axis.

FIG. 6 is a front elevation of a portion of the shooter for illustrating a portion of the sighting apparatus used in aiming the shooter. FIG. 6 is taken when looking in the direction of the arrows 6-6 in FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In carrying out my invention, I provide an elongated game board indicated at A in FIGS. 1 and 2. This game board or runway may be divided into three separable units 1, 2 and 3, if desired for the purpose of ready storage or shipping. The unit 2 of the game board is removably connected to the unit 1 by any means desired, such as by dowel pins 44 at one edge of the unit 2 being received in recesses provided in the adjacent edge of the unit 1. In like manner the unit 3 is removably connected to the unit 2 by dowel pins 5-5 at one edge of the unit 3 being removably receivable in the adjacent edge of the middle unit 2.

I will first describe the target area for the game after which I will describe the double barrel shooter and how it operates. The target area is contained in the unit 3 of the game board A, see FIGS. 1 and 2. The playing surface of the target area has a circular area 6 that is preferably colored blue and is positioned in the center of the unit 3. A concentric white colored ring 7 encircles the circular area 6 and a concentric red colored ring 8 encircles the ring 7. I do not wish to be confined to any particular color arrangement for the central disc or circular area 6 and its two outer concentric rings 7 and 8.

Still referring to FIG. 1, it will be seen that I place markings or spots 9 on certain portions of the target area B, which comprises the colored disc 6 and its two outer concentric rings 7 and 8. I provide pins C, shown in FIG. 2, and these pins may be placed on the markings or spots 9, and will remain in an upright position until knocked over by a direct hit from a marble in a manner to be described later. Again, I do not wish to be confined to any particular arrangement of the spots 9. or the pins C.

I will now describe the double barrel marble shooter in which gravity is used for propelling the marbles. In FIGS. 3 to 6 inclusive I illustrate the shooter and it comprises a base that has a pivot pin 10 that projects downwardly from below the base and is removably received in a central opening 11 provided in the unit 1 of the game board A, see FIGS. 2 and 4. An upright E extends upwardly from the base D, and it has a pair of downwardly inclined bores 12 and 13, see FIGS. 3 and 4, that receive a pair of downwardly inclined tubes F and G that function as a shooter for a pair of marble's. The inlet ends' 14 and 15 of the tubes F and G, re-

spectively, have horizontally disposed rims so that the player can readily insert a pair of marbles into the tubes. The outlet ends 16 and 17 of the tubes F and G, respectively, have vertically disposed rims with the lower portions of these rims just clearing the upper surface of the unit 1. A bracket supports the lower ends of the tubes F and G, and it is connected to the base D.

I provide novel means for holding marbles used in playing the game and this means has a handle for permitting the player to swing the base D and tubes F and G about a vertical axis which coincides with the axis of the pin 10 that projects below the base. The marble holding means comprises an elongated trough H, see

FIGS. 2, 4 and 5, that is secured to the top of the base D and projects at right angles to the adjacent face of the upright E. A handle 19 extends upwardly from the outer end of the trough H, and the player can grasp this handle for swinging the base D about its pivot for aiming the tubes F and G in the desired direction. FIGS. 2, 4 and 5 showa-plurality of marbles J arranged along the trough H. The trough lies in a vertical plane that extends between the two parallely arranged tubes F and G.

I will now describe a novel sighting apparatus used by the player for aiming the tubes F and G, in the direction of the pins C he desires to knock over. A central sighting disc K with an opening 20 therein is positioned adjacent to the upper ends of the tubes F and G, and is secured to the tubes by a bracket 21 that encloses both of the tubes. A second sighting member is mounted in the proper position in the upright E, see FIGS. 4 and 6. The upright E has a large opening 22 therein and a wire 23 extends upwardly from the lower portion of the opening 22 and supports a small disc 24 that is received within the opening. The disc 24 has a center opening 25 with cross hairs 26, therein.

In FIGS. 2 and 4, I show by a dash line 27 how a player sights through the opening 20 in the disc K, and sights through the opening 25 in the small disc 25 with its cross hairs 26 so as to aim the shooter in the direction of the pins C. A diagrammatic showing of an eye 28 is shown in FIG. 2 and the dash line 27 extends from the eye to the desired pin C which the player desires to knock over.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show the target area 3 of the game board A enclosed on three sides by a guard rail. The end of the unit 3 has a guard rail 29 and each side of the unit 3 has a guard rail. The side guide rails are in .two sections that extend at an angle to each other. The side guide rail sections 300 and 30b make an obtuse angle with respect to each other and in like manner the other side guide rail sections 31a and 31b make an obtuse angle with respect to each other.

It will also be noted from FIG. 1 that the unit 1 of the game board A has two other openings 32 and 33 that are positioned at each side of the base D of the shooter. This permits the player to lift the disc D with its shooter from the central opening 11 in the unit and place it in either one of the side openings 32 or 33. A'player may have a greater success when positioning the base D to the right or left of the position shown in FIG. 1.

OPERATION I From the foregoing description of the various parts of the device, the operation thereof may be readily understood. The knock-over pins C may be placed on the spots 9 on the target area in the manner shown in FIG. 1 or they may be arranged in any other manner desired by the player. The double barrel shooter may have its pivot pin 10 that depends from the base D, placed in the board opening 11, as is shown in FIG.-2, or the player may mount the base so as to have its pin 10 received in either the opening 32 or the opening 33, see FIG. 1.

The marbles J, or small balls, such as ball bearings, are placed in the storage trough H, as indicated in FIGS. 2 and 4. The player now looks through the opening 20 in the sighting disc K and looks through the opening 25 in the small disc 24, see FIGS. 2, 3, 4 and 6, and swings the base D of the double barrel shooter by means of the handle 19, so as to aim the shooter-at the desired pin C. The cross hairs 26 in the opening 25 of the small disc 24 permits relatively accurate aiming of the double barrel shooter. Two marbles J are now removed from the trough H by the player and fed into the entrance ends 14 of the tubes F and G. The force of gravity will cause both marbles to rapidly move down the twotubes and onto the upper surface or runway of the game board A with sufficient speed that they will quickly traverse the distance between the double barrel shooter and the target area B. If the aim is good, the marbles will strike and knock over one or more pins C. The marbles may strike the angled sides 30a, 30b or 31a, 31b and bounce off from the sides and possibly strike more of the pins C and knock them over. The scoring of the game can be done in a number of different ways and the rules of the game would govern this scoring. The angled sides and the end guard 29 prevent the marbles from rolling off the board A.

I claim:

l. A game comprising:

a. an elongated board constituting a runway for marbles and having a target area near one end of the runway;

b. a marble shooter rotatably mounted on the board near the other end thereofisaid shooter including 0. a pair of downwardly inclined marble-receiving tubes whose lower ends are spaced a' slight distance above said board so that marbles released into said tubes at the upper ends thereof will travel through the tubes by gravity and 'will be propelled across said board;

. knock-over pins positioned on the target area;

e. sighting means for permitting the player to aim the tubes toward said pins prior to releasing the marbles through the tubes;

f. said marble shooter further including a base resting on said board and having a pin receivable in an opening in said board for permitting the base to be swung about the pin axis;

g. an upright supported by said base and in turn supporting said downwardly inclined tubes;

h. said sighting means including a first sighting disc mounted on said tubes; and

i. a second sighting disc carried by said support and positioned so that a player can sight through the openings in both discs'for aiming the tubes in the direction of said pins. i

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1: and in which a. a marble receiving storage trough supported by said base and extending at right angles to the face of said upright and lying in a vertical plane that extends between said pair of parallely arranged tubes; and

b. a handle mounted at the outer end of said trough and adapted to be grasped by the player for swinging the base on said board for aiming the tubes toward the target area and pins. 

1. A game comprising: a. an elongated board constituting a runway for marbles and having a target area near one end of the runway; b. a marble shooter rotatably mounted on the board near the other end thereof; said shooter including c. a pair of downwardly inclined marble-receiving tubes whose lower ends are spaced a slight distance above said board so that marbles released into said tubes at the upper ends thereof will travel through the tubes by gravity and will be propelled across said board; d. knock-over pins positioned on the target area; e. sighting means for permitting the player to aim the tubes toward said pins prior to releasing the marbles through the tubes; f. said marble shooter further including a base resting on said board and having a pin receivable in an opening in said board for permitting the base to be swung about the pin axis; g. an upright supported by said base and in turn supporting said downwardly inclined tubes; h. said sighting means including a first sighting disc mounted on said tubes; and i. a second sighting disc carried by said support and positioned so that a player can sight through the openings in both discs for aiming the tubes in the direction of said pins.
 2. The combination as set forth in claim 1: and in which a. a marble receiving storage trough supported by said base and extending at right angles to the face of said upright and lying in a vertical plane that extends between said pair of parallely arranged tubes; and b. a handle mounted at the outer end of said trough and adapted to be grasped by the player for swinging the base on said board for aiming the tubes toward the target area and pins. 